Dear Friends:
  I am enjoying the thread on BFAR and supply and how to encourage moms.
  Over the years, I have seen  events where no one could have predicted the
outcome. Such as a mom with a postpartum hemorrhage on day 10 (she needed 2
units of blood via transfusion) who lost her supply, and was told by several
healthcare professionals that bf was over for her. She kept pumping and
supplementing and she was able to recover a full supply after about 3 weeks.

     Another mom, with a reduction on one side and an augmentation on the
other (one breast was originally a B and the other was a DD).....the breast
that made the milk was the augmented breast but that breast became so painful
she couldn't bear to feed. ( I am guessing that there was so much scar tissue
and adhesions that milk couldn't flow or expand and contract the ductwork
easily).  So she is using an SNS on the reduced side, and enjoying the
benefits of a bf relationship.
   And of course, all the adoptive mothers who really never know what will
happen. And those cases where the mom is doing everything, there is no milk,
and then BANG the milk fairy comes at 6 or 10 weeks postpartum and she has
milk.
    Can't predict anything, and that is what I tell moms who press me for an
answer. Just go for it, keep an eye on baby's weight gain, and see what
happens. Either way it is a win in the sense that the mother knows she has
done everything she could. If the milk eventually comes, hurray. If she gets
sick and tired of all the work for naught, then it becomes easier for her to
let it go.
     Warmly,
Nikki Lee RN, MSN, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CIMI, CCE, craniosacral therapy
Adjunct faculty, Union Institute and University, Maternal and Child Health:
Lactation Consulting
Supporting the WHO Code and the Mother Friendly Childbirth Initiative

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